Stuart Newton Hampshire 1914–2004

Stuart Newton Hampshire 1914–2004

Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 150 Biographical Memoirs of Fellows, VI

Author(s):

Alan Ryan

Publisher:

British Academy

DOI:10.5871/bacad/9780197264232.003.0005

Stuart Hampshire was one of the most interesting philosophers of the last half-century. He wrote extensively on ethics and politics during the second half of his career, but everything he wrote reflected the concerns that drew him to Aristotle, Spinoza, and Freud at the beginning of his career; and although he was never a Marxist, he never lost his respect for Marx's analysis of the conflicts and tensions inherent in any economically complex society. The last book Hampshire published in his lifetime was called, characteristically, Justice is Conflict, having begun with the title Justice is Strife. To the very end of his life, he wrote with an extraordinary freshness and lightness of touch, and preserved an open-minded curiosity about the human condition in all its aspects that would have been remarkable in someone fifty years younger.

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